Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE) Increases Dividend to $0.16 Per Share

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.16 per share by the insurance provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. This is a positive change from Universal Insurance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

Universal Insurance has a payout ratio of 24.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Universal Insurance to earn $2.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.2%.

Universal Insurance Price Performance

Universal Insurance stock traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $20.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 110,740 shares, compared to its average volume of 120,631. Universal Insurance has a 52 week low of $15.78 and a 52 week high of $23.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $20.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.59. The stock has a market cap of $567.10 million, a PE ratio of 8.15 and a beta of 0.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jon Springer sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.63, for a total transaction of $515,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 383,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,905,993.64. This represents a 6.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Sean P. Downes sold 15,064 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.46, for a total value of $338,337.44. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,047,198 shares in the company, valued at $23,520,067.08. This trade represents a 1.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 90,064 shares of company stock worth $1,879,587. 17.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Universal Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

About Universal Insurance

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated insurance holding company in the United States. It develops, markets, and underwrites insurance products for personal residential insurance, such as homeowners, renters/tenants, condo unit owners, and dwelling/fire; and offers allied lines, coverage for other structures, and personal property, liability, and personal articles coverages.